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Dragon Age Thread - Own DA2? Want a free copy of Mass Effect 2 on PC? Check the OP!

Experience the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the critically acclaimed makers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.

Dragon Age 2 thrusts players into the role of Hawke, a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age. Known to be a survivor of the Blight and the Champion of Kirkwall, the legend around Hawke’s rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor. Featuring an all-new story spanning 10 years, players will help tell that tale by making tough moral choices, gathering the deadliest of allies, amassing fame and fortune, and sealing their place in history. The way you play will write the story of how the world is changed forever.

Key Features:

* Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make.
* Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land.
* Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior.
* Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go.
* Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style.

You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of a legendary order of guardians. With the return of mankind's ancient foe and the kingdom engulfed in civil war, you have been chosen by fate to unite the shattered lands and slay the archdemon once and for all.

Key Features:

* Immerse yourself in a shattered world on the brink of annihiliation
* Experience complex moral decisions that have game-changing consequences
* Sculpt your hero in your own image or fantasy
* Engage in bone-crushing, visceral combat against massive and terrifying creatures

News

04/05/2011 - Because of Dragon Age 2's retail success, for a limited time BioWare is giving away copies of Mass Effect 2 for PC for free for those who qualify. You can find more information and get your free game at the following link: http://dragonage.bioware.com/me2offer

02/09/2011 - A Mac version of the game has been announced, and will ship on the same disc as the PC version.

02/02/2011 - A Dragon Age 2 PC, 360 and PS3 demo will be available February 22nd, 2011. All three classes will be available to play, from the prologue up to meeting Isabella in Kirkwall. Upon completion of the demo, you'll unlock a sword to use in the full game. More information can be found at the following link: http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/demo

01/12/2011 - Dragon Age 2 is now available for pre-purchase on Steam.

10/14/2010 - The Dragon Age 2 Signature Edition has been announced. If you pre-order the game between now and January 11, 2011, your order will automatically be upgraded to the Signature Edition. It includes extra in-game weapons, a code for a new playable character, downloadable game soundtrack, and additional downloadable items. More information can be found at http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/info/order/.

09/07/2010 - The final Dragon Age: Origins DLC, Witch Hunt, is now available for purchase. You can view more information at the following link: For more information, visit the following link: http://dragonage.bioware.com/dao/witch_hunt/.

07/08/2010 - Dragon Age 2 officially announced for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360! A debut trailer will be released on August 17th, 2010.

07/06/2010 - Dragon Age: Origins - Leliana's Song addon is now available for purchase!

"Assume the role of Leliana, a young bard involved in a criminal ring that deals in political secrets. Accompanying her mentor Marjolaine on a high-risk mission, Leliana soon finds herself entangled in a game of intrigue that she cannot escape with just her beauty, charm, or stealth. The only way out of this game is to kill or be killed."

05/18/2010 - The Dragon Age: Origins - Darkspawn Chronicles addon is now available for purchase!

"You now fight as the Darkspawn! The city of Denerim, jewel of Ferelden, girds itself for war. As a hurlock vanguard, you alone hold the power to make thralls of your fellow darkspawn and drive them into the heat of battle. Heed the archdemon's call--Denerim must burn!"

01/29/2010 - Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar addon is now available for purchase!

"Your memories of the battle of Ostagar will haunt you for years to come. It laid waste to your order and claimed the lives of many great men and women, including the brash young King Cailan and your mentor, Duncan.

Now, there are rumors that a fellow survivor of the battle has escaped from captivity and is seeking the Grey Wardens' help. The time has come for the Grey Wardens to make their return to Ostagar and exact their revenge upon the darkspawn."

11/03/2009 - Dragon Age: Origins is now available for purchase!

10/22/2009 - Dragon Age: Journeys is now available to play.

It's a 2D flash game, free to play in your browser, and set in the Dragon Age: Origins world. Playing the game will allow you to earn exclusives items for use in Dragon Age: Origins. http://www.dragonagejourneys.com/

From here you'll be able to access friends, groups, uploaded character information, and more, as well as being able to download the Character Creator. You can make a character, save it for use with the full game, and even upload your character to the Social Network website.

Many of the following links and descriptions are courtesy of Ranadiel!

Spoiler:

Graphics and Atmosphere:

Improved Atmosphere -- adds more ambiance to the game world and a lot more, I highly recommend it. This mod changes a lot of things in regards to what characters wear and what they're doing in game, so you may want to read through before you install.

Dragon Age Redesigned -- Another major overhaul of the game in terms of graphics, all good in my opinion.

JB Textures -- Improves the look of the game, giving it a more high-res appearance.

Circles Be Gone -- Removes the targeting circles from the game. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to take screen shots and enjoy the view of the game.

Resized Shale -- Makes Shale a lot bigger than the original in-game model, as fitting for a gigantic stone golem. Makes some cut-scenes look silly due to un-adjusted camera angles, but still a good mod.

No Helmet Hack 1.6 - This mod makes helmets invisible "by placing helmets in the cloak slot. Each character maintains their own visibility setting. The helmets are visible on the inventory paperdoll for comparison and easy swapping."

Gray Warden Runic Armor - This mod gives you a powerful set of armor, three shields, and several swords as a variant of the Warden armor.

Madd Gift Guide - This mod edits the item description for gifts with the name of the companion it is intended for.

Gift Guide - Awakening - This is a companion mod to Madd Gift Guide that adds support for The Stone Prisoner, Return to Ostagar and Awakening.

Gameplay & Combat:

Extra Dog Slot -- Makes Dog a permanent 5th member by allowing him to be summoned by the Warden. Keep in mind he counts as a Summon so if your Warden is a Ranger, you won't be able to have Dog and one of your summoned animals out at the same time.

Full Combatant Dog -- Improves Dog's base stats and gives him access to more abilities, making him more of a contributing party member. I was never able to get it to work exactly how it states in the description, but it works well enough for me.

Advanced Tactics -- Gives you a ton of new tactics options for setting up your AI. A must-have.

Custom Number of Tactics Slots -- Starts you out with 10 Tactics Slots and allows you to gain more per level-up depending on which exptable file you use.

Combat Tweaks -- Overhauls a lot of the spells, talents and formulas in the game. Most of the changes are well-balanced in my opinion and apply to all creatures, not just your party.

No Automatic Deactivation -- Stops the automatic deactivation of certain sustained abilities at the end of combat, such as Berserk and Blood Magic. Really useful.

Skip the Fade - Don't like the Fade mission, or just want to get through it quickly on a another playthrough? This mod teleports you directly to your companions instead of going through the entire section, as well as giving you all the attribute points, experience points, and codex entries you would have normally earned if you completed the Fade.

Lock Bash - This mod allows you to bash or force locked doors and chest opens, with a number of configuration options such as item breakage and stat requirements.

Console - Add Points -- Adds a runscript givepoints command to the developer console. Very handy and a great way to give spec points to characters who don't normally earn them(Shale, Dog) or ones that "forget" to start out with a spec(Sten).

The Winter Forge -- Adds a new crafting skill, "Enchantment" to game, to be used in conjunction with the new Winter Forge added to the campsite. A pretty in-depth system that allows you to create entirely new items or modify existing ones with custom stats, effects and abilities.

Awakening in the OC -- Adds the resources, specializations, spells, skills and talents of the Awakening campaign to the OC. Love it.

slinks s3 RAVAge -- Totally overhauls the game world, mostly in terms of combat encounters, weapons, armor and items. Definitely not for everyone, but good if you're seeking more variety in the game or a bigger challenge. Personally I love it.

Morrigan Restoration Patch Dialogue Fixpack -- Restores lines and scenes that were cut from the game before release. Fleshes her character out a lot more, making her seem less one-dimensional. Worth checking out if only just to see the missing scenes, such as ratting her out to the Templars at the Circle Tower, or the post-Flemeth encounter scene.

Ser Gilmore Party Member -- Brings back Ser Gilmore from the human noble origin and makes him a full-fledged, fully-voiced party member. The only thing that keeps this mod from being perfect is the fact that lacks is interactive party banter, and doesn't comment on interesting things seen by the party. Other than that it's a great mod worth checking out at least once.

Duchells Companions -- A set of face-morphs for the companions. You can pick and chose the ones you want to use. I use the Ser Gilmore V1 morph, since I can't stand gingers and it makes him look a lot more of a badass.

Dragon Age Rules Fixpack -- A set of tweaks and bug fixes, but most importantly a modified events manager file that allows it to take on more of a load without crashing the game. The tweaks and bug fix files are entirely module and don't have to be added, but the Core Files folder does need to be installed for anything to work, as it also includes the events manager files. Very useful.

Character Respecialization - "This addon allows the player to reset the base attributes, specialization points, spells, talents and skills of the hero character and any of the party members to the default values and returns the remaining points so they can be spent again. The addon takes into account every bonus point the characters receive during the game including CE and DLC items, tomes, bonus points from the Fade, etc."

Dialogue Tweaks - This mod "changes companion dialogues for consistency, bug fixing, and adds new minor options. All dialogue is voiced by original game voice actors; these are changes to scripting, text, and dialogue conditions to make use of or correct existing dialogue." The creator suggests using the following two mods in conjunction with Dialogue Tweaks:

Alistair Dialog Patch - This mod "fixes many endgame dialogue issues relating to Alistair and his status, as well as some other adjustments to Alistair's general dialogue and romance-related dialogue."

Endgame Dialogue Fixes - This mod makes "corrections to endgame dialogue issues relating to Alistair and his status, as well as optional endgame slideshow changes to expand on the original story."

Dragon Age 2 - Articles & Reviews

5/5 - The Escapist - "A pinnacle of role-playing games with well-designed mechanics and excellent story-telling, Dragon Age II is what videogames are meant to be."

94/100 - Xbox360Achievements - "Manages to be the same great epic as its forebear in terms of sheer scale and ambition, while packing in superior visuals, improved gameplay and a stronger grasp on its own unique identity."

92/100 - Gametrailers - "Though it doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor when it comes to sheer breadth, Dragon Age II has quite a bit more soul."

90/100 - Official Xbox Magazine - "Next to its predecessor, Dragon Age II may be a slightly altered beast, but the minute Isabela slyly chirps "I like big boats, I cannot lie" to a Desire Demon in the murky Fade, you'll realize this game offers some of the deepest, nerdiest, most worthwhile 40 to 60 hours you'll ever love losing sleep over."

90/100 - Games Master UK - "BioWare have comprehensively hit back at detractors of the original game and Dragon Age II delivers a distinctive fantasy RPG with far broader appeal and personality than before. Mega-nerds may feel slighted that they can't dig into the mechanics quite so easily but few would argue that this slicker, more streamlined approach isn't a vast improvement."

86/100 - GamingXP - "Unfortunately, Dragon Age 2 has not met my expectations. The epic story of Dragon Age: Origins made me play the game for hours, but Dragon Age 2 lacks a gripping story. Most of the time you create bloodbaths by running through the same dull dungeons. There are some improvements like a talking main character, but it's not a new Dragon Age, it's rather a hack'n'slay with a touch of roleplaying. If you missed some action in Dragon Age: Origins, then you should get Dragon Age 2, but if you loved the atmosphere, the story and the freedom of choice, then you should expect something different."

85/100 - IGN - "The combat is more responsive and bloody, you don't need to fight the inventory system anymore, and conversations are more engaging thanks to the adapted Mass Effect wheel. There are downsides though; the semi-linear story and repetitive environments have a negative effect on what is otherwise a great role-playing game."

83/100 - 1UP - "It really seems like the biggest mistake is calling it "DA2," as it's just different enough from Dragon Age: Origins to not feel like a sequel, but more like a reboot. The different main character, the faster and more streamlined combat, and the overall structure makes it feel like a fine Dragon Age adventure, but not a direct follow-up to DAO."

83/100 - Game Informer - "Part of me was disappointed with Dragon Age II. I hoped for an improvement on the original, but it ultimately feels like a step back."

72/100 - IncGamers - "While the gameplay is far from perfect, Dragon Age II is an absolute must for anyone interested in the world, the lore and a good story - but anyone hoping for something that feels and plays like Origins might want to adjust their expectations accordingly."

70/100 - Gamer Limit - "While Dragon Age II doesn't quite measure up to it's predecessor, the streamlined approach was a solid effort - if Bioware can somehow marry the best parts of Origins and Dragon Age II, it will produce one of the best RPGs the world has ever seen."

70/100 - VideoGamer - "Despite the way narrative has been re-structured and the combat made meatier, this sequel follows the old conventions of the genre too literally to develop an individuality beyond them. Two entries down the pipe, and Dragon Age is still experiencing the growing pains of a series that's more dedicated to studying fantasy games than developing its own personality in the genre."

5/5 - Giant Bomb review - "However, as the sort of guy that has lovingly played an Infinity Engine game at least once every year for the past decade, I can think of no higher praise for this throwback than to say that Dragon Age: Origins leaves me feeling fairly confident I won't need to dig out the classics for this ritual next year."

9.5/10 - GameSpot video review - "If you're hungry for a fantastical original fantasy setting, an awesome story filled with memorable characters, and fun multi-layered questing, Dragon Age will fill you up. This is the RPG you've been waiting for, the one that's going to keep you up at night and invade your dreams."

94/100 - PC Gamer UK - "Roleplaying games now have a great deal to live up to."

9.2/10 - UK IGN PC - "Bioware’s achievements in all this are incredible. It cannot be stressed enough at the depth of the universe they have conjured. Every corner you look, there is a sense of age, of something old. Entire mythologies for multiple cultures have been brewed up, entire religions mapped out in their own belief systems, history that stretches back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Cities look lived in, worn – majestic and squalid places that spill with times gone by and a sense of place. The castles look like they have been there for centuries, and truly, there is an uncertain sense that they have been. That Ferelden and its inhabitants were waiting patiently in the wings for all this time, waiting for their chance to shine. Well, like the Grey Wardens, their time has come. Let us unite then, and in the words of an old friend: We shall show those cursed Darkspawn our hearts – and then show them theirs."

92/100 - Absolute Games review - "It has everything that is sought by the most jaded fans of the genre..."

90/100 - Game Informer review - "Even more than Mass Effect, the nation of Ferelden feels like a fully realized setting with its own history, conflicts, and power groups."

8/10 - Eurogamer PC review - "In its desperation to infuse this setting with 'maturity' - be it of the sober, political kind, or the game's painfully clumsy gore and sex - BioWare has forgotten the key ingredient of any fantasy: the fantastical. Without it, you're still left with a competent, often compelling, impressively detailed and immense RPG, but it's one that casts no spell."

Oh, hell no! That was my second biggest complaint about ME2 (my biggest being they ripped out most of the RPG mechanics). I do NOT want to see them going that way any farther. Hell, all but one of my complaints about DA2 are about the stuff they integrated from ME (Dialogue wheel, voice acting, etc). ME is a great game, but god damn it, do NOT turn Dragon Age into a Fantasy ME.

Well, yeah. But man, the past... all of the Bioware games... loot has just been pretty awful.

I mean I have fond memories of BG2's loot, but that is probably a lot nostalgia. Though I did actually like that it was a bit more sedate. Like, you'd equip everyone with shit, then you'd find one decent for one character, then halfway-decent store bought for everyone, then decent for everyone, then two people get lucky and have a good one that sticks with them the whole game. It feels kind of rote to just go grab +4 every hour or so.

And god, every time I see an item for the head/hands/feet/chest in this game I go "Oh! That'll work great on fuck."

That's part of the Mass Effect route, though. Bioware stripped down the NPCs to make them more visually unique, but in the process reduced the complexity of builds and (in my opinion) weakened the RPG aspects of the game. It's still a good game, its still a lot of fun, but I really feel that it's weaker for the integration of the Mass Effect stylings.

I was hoping that Dragon Age 2 would be to Dragon Age what Baldur's Gate 2 was to Baldur's Gate, a bigger, more complex version that expanded and improved everything that came before it. Instead we got a completely new direction. Its not a bad thing, I just would love a bigger, more complex Dragon Age.

Regarding the discussion from last page: The problem with DA2's sidequests was that most of them sucked, hard.

Do tell. I'm intrigued by your assertion and would like to subscribe to your newsletter to find out how they sucked, hard.

You typical Dragon Age 2 side quest - go through the cave/ruins/mine/storehouse/mountain/cliff side and kill all bandits/demons/skeletons/spiders/dragons, have a short conversation with the dungeon boss, kill said dungeon boss. This will be repeated over and over and over and, yes, over again and you always go to the very same locations and kill the very same enemy hordes. There are preciously few side quests that break up this routine and it drove me mad (I even switched to casual difficulty mid-way through the game). The game basically assumes you are brain-dead, because that might be the only possible reason to enjoy this sisyphean task. Most MMOs have probably a more diverse quest range than DA2.

Regarding the discussion from last page: The problem with DA2's sidequests was that most of them sucked, hard.

Do tell. I'm intrigued by your assertion and would like to subscribe to your newsletter to find out how they sucked, hard.

You typical Dragon Age 2 side quest - go through the cave/ruins/mine/storehouse/mountain/cliff side and kill all bandits/demons/skeletons/spiders/dragons, have a short conversation with the dungeon boss, kill said dungeon boss. This will be repeated over and over and over and, yes, over again and you always go to the very same locations and kill the very same enemy hordes. There are preciously few side quests that break up this routine and it drove me mad (I even switched to casual difficulty mid-way through the game). The game basically assumes you are brain-dead, because that might be the only possible reason to enjoy this sisyphean task. Most MMOs have probably a more diverse quest range than DA2.

Wow did we play the same game? I can't help but feel like you're trolling quite a bit. The quests were varied, a lot of the companion and major side quests were great. I think you're being a little to general. I mean you could describe any game like that. Go here... killl this and this and this.. talk to someone... etc etc, it really doesn't mean shit when you say it like that :/

For act 1, I would've changed it so you get to see Hawke working for the mercs/smugglers, moving up the ranks a mission at a time, and then something happens (Hawke sees something he shouldn't, and the mercs put a bounty on Hawke's head or something) and he has to leave the city for a bit. So he goes on the Deep Roads expedition to lay low for a bit, then comes out a hero with tons of money.

I think this change would've added more urgency/motivation to the first act.

I haven't got very far into the game yet so I can't talk about specifics, but generally I can't help but think that a game is really not the place for a fairly mundane motivator like poverty, at least not if the story is to be told well.

I think that a compelling story about that kind of struggle has to show that poverty is a chronic problem, so it's not going to be easy to portray well in a 25 hour video game, unlike say, betrayal/murder/being hunted/saving the world.

If Bioware managed to show the true depressing nature of poverty, for example by showing your family struggling with hunger, scraping a few pennies together begging or being unable to afford healthcare in illness, then I could see it working, but it would still require a lot of patience from the audience and I suspect that may be the limiting factor in a game that is pretty action packed.

Oh, come on.

Why don't we just make the game about teaming up with Al Gore to save the world realistically, by limiting carbon waste emissions and slowly mounting pressure on world governments via protests and letter writing campaigns to engage in nuclear arms reduction talks?

Or, we can recognize that media uses shorthand and that it's not all that necessary to show Leliandra Hawke going to bed hungry every night to know that we'd rather not be poor.

No shit, my point was that it's not easy to make the story emotionally engaging when it's about poverty (without doing the things I mentioned), compared to stories about more acute crazy happenings. LOT was saying that DAIIs poverty story was not engaging.

If you want a game that just says "this is your situation, go do this to sort it out, have fun!" then I guess that's ok, but if you play RPG's to be immersed then...oh well.

Your Al Gore point is pretty unrelated. I'm not saying you should have realistic boring things to do to get out of the bad situation, i'm saying that if you want players to be motivated to get out of a bad situation then you should do a good job making them feel how bad it is.

Okay, what is immersion? Is it dwelling on the minutae of an extremely un-fun situation like illness or poverty? I suppose it could be. Could you also find immersion with all that shit as a backdrop as a sort of shorthand to stage awesome adventures? I think it might just be possible.

I know what poverty is. I deal with not having a lot of money myself, all the time. I already know that it means struggling with medical bills or constant pressure around holidays. I can relate to my character just getting by already, I don't need further immersion in that. Would I rather dwell on that, or about my awesome sword-slingin' adventures with my magic little sister and friends to get out of that poverty situation? The family & friends adventure and drama situation is where I'd rather get immersed.

I think you see what I'm getting at.

For me, when you are immersed in a game world you feel what the player character is feeling and the PC behaves in a way consistent with the role you're playing, this gives motivation to follow the story and weight to decisions that are made.

For example, in the DA:O noble origin I felt pretty damn sad when those bastards killed 'my' family and I was angry and motivated to go get revenge. This sad feeling gave the whole storyline resonance and interest that would have been lacking if they didn't portray it so well - by having you speak to your dying father after seeing many innocent members of your family killed and the heroic last stand of your mother. That was easy immersion to evoke because of the extreme nature of the events.

Now, as for the DA2 situation of being poor: If you want to get your player immersed in this situation and hence the storyline, then you need to illustrate what the situation is well in order to motivate them to go acquire the funds. For some people the fun of getting that money is not motivation enough. If you don't have that clear initial motivation then the adventure part may seem a little aimless, which is something that a few here have commented on (but not I, because as I said, I haven't played it yet). My argument was that it is difficult to immerse the player in that specific situation and therefore generate the motivation that is necessary to give the player drive and purpose, something that I would suggest is essential to a story driven RPG.

Obviously people are going to be more or less familiar with poverty and hence will have different thresholds for immersion in that situation, but based on some of the comments here, Bioware could have done a better job.

"A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz EllorMy new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!

Sure, and I feel like I'm feeding the trolls even as I write this, but there is all kinds of quests in this game. There's a quest to escort a Qunari mage through the underside of the city, there's a quest to help your companion come to grips with family that has betrayed him. There's quests to help your companions deal with their weaknesses, whether it's insecurity, being pursed by others etc etc. You're being way too general when you say all the quests are the same. Just because some of the quests require you to go to the beach, doesn't mean every quest in the game is the same, come on now..

Regarding the discussion from last page: The problem with DA2's sidequests was that most of them sucked, hard.

Do tell. I'm intrigued by your assertion and would like to subscribe to your newsletter to find out how they sucked, hard.

You typical Dragon Age 2 side quest - go through the cave/ruins/mine/storehouse/mountain/cliff side and kill all bandits/demons/skeletons/spiders/dragons, have a short conversation with the dungeon boss, kill said dungeon boss. This will be repeated over and over and over and, yes, over again and you always go to the very same locations and kill the very same enemy hordes. There are preciously few side quests that break up this routine and it drove me mad (I even switched to casual difficulty mid-way through the game). The game basically assumes you are brain-dead, because that might be the only possible reason to enjoy this sisyphean task. Most MMOs have probably a more diverse quest range than DA2.

Your description of a 'typical' side quest in DA2 is pretty much identical to the description of a 'typical' side quest in every RPG ever made.

What's more, it's not even accurate. There's the escort the qunari mage quest, the hook up the guard captain with her main-squeeze-to-be quest, the meet the party member's long-lost sister quest, the save the kid you met in act one from fade demons quest...

Man, I really have to give it to Bioware since they've managed to make all the classes equally fun to play. I just wish I could decide which of my Mage, Warrior or Rogue I should complete the game with for the first time

Sure, and I feel like I'm feeding the trolls even as I write this, but there is all kinds of quests in this game. There's a quest to escort a Qunari mage through the underside of the city, there's a quest to help your companion come to grips with family that has betrayed him. There's quests to help your companions deal with their weaknesses, whether it's insecurity, being pursed by others etc etc. You're being way too general when you say all the quests are the same. Just because some of the quests require you to go to the beach, doesn't mean every quest in the game is the same, come on now..

It doesn't actually change anything gameplay-wise if I escort a character, have to light up torches on the way or collect some rare minerals, it plays out exactly the same every time. Those things are just flavor. And you're already accusing me of being a troll the second time, I just have a different opinion than you man. Basically I agree with what durandal4532 wrote.

I plan to go blood mage, but can't decide between sidelining force mage for unshakeable or spirit healer for that big passive health/health regen boost

I haven't played a mage yet, but I keep hearing how blood mage was disappointing and force mage is unstoppable destruction.

Force magic is unstoppable... CC.

It's really not that destructive. It has one small AoE that does really great damage against staggered targets. That's kind of it. But it has great direct control, and it adds force to your elemental attacks, granting them control as well.

Maybe you could give us an example of a side quest in an RPG you do like, because pretty much all of them are the same if you're willing to dismiss all of their differences as "just flavor."

I'm sorry, but occasionally right-clicking on an object and otherwise doing the exact same thing as always does not make for varied quests

as for examples, my memory is bad for this, but in Fallout:NV you have to guard a weapon store and control the customers at the entrance, and in Oblivion: Shivering Islands there is a quest where you have to set up traps in a dungeon to kill an adventurer group.

Having enchanted items be really rare and provide unique benefits, and having those benefits actually be useful period, rather than +23 now, to be replaced by +31 later, would be really nice. I hate all the "Belts" and "Rings". I would rather have a single +attack ring than 40 identical copies of no real consequence.

Also I keep wanting to identify/read about items in this and nope.

I wouldn't mind having more level-upgrading gear at all, but a lot of people love upgrading their gear through loot. It's why games like Diablo exist.

As streamlined as it was, ME2 had a good idea with allowing for unlocked stuff to be available for all teammates, eliminating a lot of pointless stuff from our inventory. It might be interesting to go a little further with crafting/inventory for DA3: make it so that you can find recipes (and recipe upgrades) for various kinds of gear, and then you can slot in as needed. Like, you find a diagram for an Amulet of Hit Points, which gives a certain bonus to (duh) hit points, which you can use, or you can use that other kind of amulet you found, the Amulet of Attack Bonus. The bonuses would either scale with level or need to be upgraded as you progress through the game. There's something there; I wouldn't want to entirely eliminate unique loot, though. Just make it so that you can always equip generic gear without it cluttering your inventory.

My main problem with DA2 inventory was that it was kinda difficult to assign rings or dual weapons while looking at the stats; they'd inevitably go into the wrong slot for some reason.

Also, the font was way too small. I was glad that there were no descriptions of items, because it would've caused me massive eye-strain.

As much as I love the story and gameplay of DA2, the fact of the matter is that it could've used another six months or so of playtesting and UI improvements. The whole promise of EA to not interfere with the release schedules of Bioware games is starting to ring a bit hollow. Glad the Good Doctors got to be Vice Presidents or whatever, though...

Regarding the discussion from last page: The problem with DA2's sidequests was that most of them sucked, hard.

Do tell. I'm intrigued by your assertion and would like to subscribe to your newsletter to find out how they sucked, hard.

You typical Dragon Age 2 side quest - go through the cave/ruins/mine/storehouse/mountain/cliff side and kill all bandits/demons/skeletons/spiders/dragons, have a short conversation with the dungeon boss, kill said dungeon boss. This will be repeated over and over and over and, yes, over again and you always go to the very same locations and kill the very same enemy hordes. There are preciously few side quests take break up this routine and it drove me mad (I even switched to casual difficulty mid-way through the game). The game basically assumes you are brain-dead, because that might be the only possible reason to enjoy this sisyphean task. Most MMOs have probably a more diverse quest range than DA2.

Because "collect X bear tongues" is more diverse than "gather proof of templar abuse" or "go into fade to rescue a budding mage from demons" or "help your party tank get a date"? Seriously, I know that almost all the quests result in Hawke killing a bunch of dudes, but that... that's kinda what the game is, and the first game was about some Warden killing a bunch of dudes. I'm not seeing how you were snookered into something you wouldn't like, here.

Maybe you could give us an example of a side quest in an RPG you do like, because pretty much all of them are the same if you're willing to dismiss all of their differences as "just flavor."

I'm sorry, but occasionally right-clicking on an object and otherwise doing the exact same thing as always does not make for varied quests

as for examples, my memory is bad for this, but in Fallout:NV you have to guard a weapon store and control the customers at the entrance, and in Oblivion: Shivering Islands there is a quest where you have to set up traps in a dungeon to kill an adventurer group.

Yeah, those were cool but each was the exception and not the rule (and there were similar exceptions in DA2, as listed above by me and others). In both New Vegas and Oblivion, as in the bulk of all RPGs, most side quests are "go here, kill that," and it's the same in DA2. If you don't like side quests where you have to kill bad guys and retrieve macguffins you're in the wrong genre, not just the wrong game.

I just find the quest design to be very basic and lazy, okay, no need to get offended about this like some do

Nobody's getting offended, I don't think. We're just pointing out how you're kinda, well, wrong. I mean, I get what you're saying, there is a certain repetative nature to the dude-killing in the quests, but the actual quests themselves, like what you're trying to do, in the story, are pretty diverse. I mean, I couldn't for the life of me imagine that All That Remains and The Long Road were generic, even though the basic gameplay elements: go through area, kill dudes, go further, kill more dudes, meet up with NPC, talk (then kill even more dudes), are both essentially the same.

And to those claiming a lack of imput on the story: Just because you don't get ending slides (I do love ending slides, by the way) doesn't mean you couldn't change the ending. All the people that lived or died hinging on your actions essentially effects the ending. It's not like two people's endgame save-state to bring to DA3 will be the same, generally... meaning that they got different endings, even if the Varric framing device that carried us out-of-game wasn't different.

Alright i'm having some trouble with my party, mostly issues where they just stand there. I'm a spirit healer and my party is Carver-Isabela-Merrill and everytime I use revive on merrill she just stands there. The other two actually start attacking bad guys again but this damn elf just stands there. Even when I take control of her and shoot a spell or two to try to "wake her up", she just goes back to doing nothing when I switch back to hawke.

Another thing with playing a spirit healer. Do I just dump all my points into willpower or should I balance it out between Magic/willpower?

I've had the same problem with my spirit healer mage, actually. I suspect some kind of bug. I'd revive Varric and he'd just be standing around without shooting anyone. Or Fenris would end up wandering around aimlessly until the battle was over (after the battle they'd go back to normal). I am not sure if it happened before I got that ability that removes injuries completely though.

It's a bug. I had this happen constantly with both a PC Mage and Anders Revive spells. Unless you mash the attack button or manually use their skills, they sheathe their weapon and stand near the controlled character, instantly regenerating any lost health or mana because they're considered out of combat.

For act 1, I would've changed it so you get to see Hawke working for the mercs/smugglers, moving up the ranks a mission at a time, and then something happens (Hawke sees something he shouldn't, and the mercs put a bounty on Hawke's head or something) and he has to leave the city for a bit. So he goes on the Deep Roads expedition to lay low for a bit, then comes out a hero with tons of money.

I think this change would've added more urgency/motivation to the first act.

Man, they had the perfect set up with the Mercenary/Smuggler thing and then after giving you this choice.....it was all fucking irrelevant.

For act 1, I would've changed it so you get to see Hawke working for the mercs/smugglers, moving up the ranks a mission at a time, and then something happens (Hawke sees something he shouldn't, and the mercs put a bounty on Hawke's head or something) and he has to leave the city for a bit. So he goes on the Deep Roads expedition to lay low for a bit, then comes out a hero with tons of money.

I think this change would've added more urgency/motivation to the first act.

Man, they had the perfect set up with the Mercenary/Smuggler thing and then after giving you this choice.....it was all fucking irrelevant.

Weird as hell there.

It wasn't irrelevant. Your old employer would contact you back with jobs now and then. Unless THOSE quests were the same, which I doubt.

Hey, so I hear they fixed the sebastian 360 achievements. I have a mage playthrough that's still somewhere in the prologue. If I start it up, will it detect and implement the fixed download or do I have to make a new character for it to be recognized?

Hey, so I hear they fixed the sebastian 360 achievements. I have a mage playthrough that's still somewhere in the prologue. If I start it up, will it detect and implement the fixed download or do I have to make a new character for it to be recognized?

Hey, so I hear they fixed the sebastian 360 achievements. I have a mage playthrough that's still somewhere in the prologue. If I start it up, will it detect and implement the fixed download or do I have to make a new character for it to be recognized?

I've heard you have to erase & re-download it.

right, I did that, I was just wondering if playthroughs in progress will recognize it or if you have to start over.